Vehicle registration plate

[4] Additionally, citizens can create custom plates, following specific guidelines and naming conventions approved by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).

China requires the re-registration of any vehicle that crosses its borders from another country, such as for overland tourist visits, regardless of the length of time it is due to remain there; this has to be arranged with prior approval.

Allowing for repeating letters and digits, the combinations for each of these will be: France was the first country to introduce the registration plate with the enactment of the Paris Police Ordinance on 14 August 1893,[7] followed by Germany in 1896.

While peculiar local variants exist, there are four basic standards worldwide: Additional sizes include: Previous sizes included: Algerian registration plates are manufactured according to the same standards as their French counterparts (prior to 2009), using the same font and dimensions – although there has been a recent tendency to apply custom typefaces (impact and century gothic have been observed).

Above the combination there was a metallic band with the state abbreviation (SP = São Paulo, RJ = Rio de Janeiro, PR = Paraná, AM = Amazonas, etc.)

[30] The first registration plates in the United States were made out of leather, rubber, iron, and porcelain, painted on the front in usually two different colors – one for the background and one for the lettering.

A few make political statements; for example, most plates issued in District of Columbia include the phrase "Taxation Without Representation" to highlight D.C.'s lack of a voting representative in the United States Congress.

In some states (Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Ohio, and some versions in Florida), the issuing county is listed at the bottom, while Kansas does so with a letter-coded registration sticker; Utah did so until 2003.

Seventeen states – Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas,[33] Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wyoming – and both the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have moved to entirely digitally printed "flat" registration plates.

Tactical vehicles of the United States military do not bear registration plates, even if they travel regularly on public streets and highways.

Indonesian vehicle plates share the legacy of the Dutch colonial era, which do not reflect the regional divisions of the country into provinces, but the old system of karesidenan or residencies.

North Korean vehicle plates follow the pattern XX-##-###, where "XX" is replaced with two Hangul syllables spelling the province name.

In a 2024 interview with NK News, the Swedish diplomat August Borg noted the bicycle policy during his time working in North Korea and considered it "unreasonable".

The blue bar consists of the name of Lebanon in Arabic (لبنان), the Lebanese Cedar tree in the middle, and the vehicle's classification all in white.

Malaysian registration plates are displayed at the front and rear of all private and commercial motorised vehicles in Malaysia, as required by law.

The issuing of the registration plates is regulated and administered by the Malaysian Road Transport Department (Malay: Jabatan Pengangkutan Jalan Malaysia) or JPJ.

Similarly, the new number plates also help authorities to maintain digital records of vehicles plying on the roads, collect revenue on time and control auto theft.

On the left hand side of the number plate is the country emblem, below which is a two-letter region identifier e.g. WP represents the Western Province.

In the European Union (EU), white or yellow number plates of a common format and size are issued throughout, although they are still optional in some member states.

The common design[48] consists of a blue strip on the left of the plate, which has the EU motif (12 yellow stars), along with the country code of the member state in which the vehicle was registered.

[53] Also, electric cars have access to plates that begin with either "EL", "EK", "EV", "EB", "EC", "ED", "EE", "EF", or "EH".

There are 9 types in use: Current Russian registration plates are a mix of French FNI, traditional Arabic "windows", and Soviet "small characters", introduced in 1993.

Number plates including the "GB" code are valid in countries party to the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic if displayed on its own or together with the Union Jack.

In 2019, the UK government announced that it was considering introducing green number plates for zero emissions vehicles, making them easier to recognize.

[70][71][72][73] The letter combinations KZ, HJ, SS and SA are not issued for license plates anywhere in Germany due to their Nazi associations.

The most common of these include fastening bolts with ornamental heads in a myriad of styles; these are generally legal everywhere providing the plate itself is not obscured.

Large stand-alone glass or plastic reflectors or cataphotes – some imprinted with an advertising message – are still common plate toppers whenever registration-plate brackets are able to accommodate them.

The physical requirements for the separate sign are defined in Annex 3 of the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, which states that the letters shall be in black on a white background having the shape of an ellipse with the major axis horizontal.

In Canada, Mexico and the United States, where the international oval is not used on vehicles from neighboring countries, putting one on a car is a matter of personal choice.

[78][79][80][81][82][83] In 2014, Randwick councilor Charles Matthews proposed to impose a $50 registration fee on bicycle riders, which would be used to help fund cycleways being built by the council.